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Sky Digest

Sunday, 22 February 2026 | Default Location
Showing the sky from Greenwich, London. Log in to use your own location.
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Tonight at a Glance

Waxing Crescent 31%
Dark window: 18:34 – 05:25 (10 h 51 m)

Aurora Forecast — Unlikely

Kp 5.3 / need 7 Bz 6.9 nT

Need Kp 7+ (currently 5.3). Watch for geomagnetic storm upgrades.

View full forecast

Planet Highlights

Jupiter mag -2.5 · 61° alt · Gemini Details
GRS transit tonight:
Io Occultation begins
Io Occultation ends

For Beginners (naked eye)

M47
NGC 2422 Open Cluster
mag 4.4

At 21:00 look low in the south

Puppis
M42
Great Orion Nebula Nebula
mag 4.0

At 21:00 look halfway up in the southwest

Orion
M31
Andromeda Galaxy Galaxy
mag 3.4

At 21:00 look halfway up in the northwest

Andromeda

Binocular Targets

U Ori
Variable Star
mag 5.4

At 21:00 look high in the southwest

Ori
M48
NGC 2548 Open Cluster
mag 5.5

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Hydra
M81
Bode's Galaxy Galaxy
mag 6.9

At 21:00 look high in the northeast

Ursa Major

Small Scopes (3–6 inch)

Castor
HIP 36850; Alpha Gem; 66 Gem Double Star
mag 2.0

At 21:00 look high in the south

Gem
C54
NGC 2506 Open Cluster
mag 7.6

At 21:00 look halfway up in the south

Monoceros
Eskimo Nebula
NGC 2392 Planetary Nebula
mag 9.2

At 21:00 look high in the south

Gemini
C7
NGC 2403 Galaxy
mag 8.4

At 21:00 look near the zenith

Camelopardalis
HIP 35210
Double Star
mag 4.8

At 21:00 look low in the south

CMa

Big Scopes (8–12 inch)

RX And
Variable Star
mag 10.2

At 21:00 look halfway up in the northwest

And
NGC 2259
Open Cluster
mag 11.0

At 21:00 look high in the south

Mon
M76
Little Dumbbell Nebula Planetary Nebula
mag 10.1

At 21:00 look halfway up in the northwest

Perseus
M65
Leo Triplet Galaxy
mag 9.3

At 21:00 look halfway up in the east

Leo
NGC 2336
Galaxy
mag 10.5

At 21:00 look high in the north

Cam

The Week Ahead

Sun Mon Tue Wed Thu Fri Sat
🌓 31% 🌓 42% 🌔 54% 🌔 65% 🌔 75% 🌔 84% 🌔 92%
Moon occults Kappa Gem

NASA Astronomy Picture of the Day

Shadow of a Martian Robot

What if you saw your shadow on Mars and it wasn't human? Then you might be the Opportunity rover exploring Mars. Opportunity explored the Red Planet from 2004 to 2018, finding evidence of ancient water, and sending breathtaking images across the inner Solar System. Pictured here in 2004, Opportunity looks opposite the Sun into Endurance Crater and sees its own shadow. Two wheels are visible on the lower left and right, while the floor and walls of the unusual crater are visible in the background. Caught in a dust storm in 2018, Opportunity stopped responding, and NASA stopped trying to contact it in 2019 and declared the ground-breaking mission, originally planned for only 92 days, complete.

APOD is a service of NASA and Michigan Tech. U.

View on NASA APOD

Space News

Reminders of Where We’ve Been, Where We’re Going

NASA announced transformative agencywide initiatives to achieve the National Space Policy, with Moon rocks on display highlighting progress toward Artemis missions and Mars exploration.

NASA — 24 Mar 2026

NASA’s Water-Hunting Tool Will Help Scout Moon’s South Pole

NASA is providing a water-detecting instrument to JAXA's Lunar Polar Exploration mission to hunt for ice on the Moon's south pole, supporting future human lunar exploration.

NASA — 24 Mar 2026

Artemis II rolls again

Artemis II rocket has rolled back to its launchpad at Kennedy Space Center, marking a key milestone in preparation for the crewed lunar mission.

ESA — 20 Mar 2026

NASA X-Ray Mission Gets Fresh Look at 2,000-Year-Old Supernova

NASA's IXPE mission has captured new observations of the 2,000-year-old supernova RCW 86, providing new insights into supernova physics and stellar explosions.

NASA — 24 Mar 2026

Explore the Three-Body Problem

Simulate chaotic gravitational dynamics with preset scenarios: circumbinary planets, Lagrange points, and the famous Figure-8 choreography. Switch between inertial and co-rotating frames.

Explore the Three-Body Problem Open Three-Body

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